Chernobyl Nuclear Accident Congressional Hearings Transcript

143
In addition to the development work of the United States and in
Grermany, there is going on development work parallel in the
Soviet Union, in the Kurchatov-Institute and other institutes.
For my last visit to the Kurchatov-Institute, I know that the staff
consists of more than 1,000 scientists and engineers working on the
pebble bed concept, similar to the German design. There may be a
feasibility to get agreement, that an agreement can be established
with the East Block countries for the application of passive, safe
reactor systems.
Senator Domenici [presiding]. Dr. Schulten, would you mind just
letting me ask you a question, please. We have a very serious time
problem, and we had asked witnesses
Dr. Schulten. A half-minute^ust in 1 minute.
Senator Domenici. That is fine. I was going to ask you what you
thought it would take.
Dr. Schulten. The bigger market of nuclear energy in the next
decades are the small reactors. This is demonstrated by studies of
international organizations. The most people in the world are
living in regions with small networks of transportation lines so
that only small units can be used.
Also, the heat application for cogeneration of nuclear steam and
oil recovery need only small units. Therefore, I guess in the next
decade, a large number of passive, safe reactors are necessary, especially
for countries that have not the technology to make active,
safe systems which are used in the reactors today.
Thank you, very much.
Senator Domenici. Thank you, very much. Doctor. We greatly
appreciate the time and effort that you have taken to come and
share your information with us.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Schulten follows:]